Through The Years
by TieDyeJackson
Summary: My fanfic friends forgive me , This is not a Scogue. I'm testing my ship chops with different Scott pairings. This one was gonna be a one shot but my brain got ahead of my writing and I'm thinking of writing another one or two chapters because I really like it . Read and Review P&Q's
1. Six Five Four

Six years can change a lot of things; six years ago he thought that he and Jean were destined for forever; six years ago he thought they had won the war after defeating Apocalypse because they had unified with the Acolytes and the Brotherhood.

Five years ago, the Shi'ar came and everything Scott had known was blown straight to hell. It seems Xavier had an intergalactic girlfriend that no one even knew about and now she was going to destroy all of Earth for the sake of containing a being of limitless power who threatened to destroy the entire universe … Jean. Well, more appropriately, the Phoenix which had lain dormant within her . Funny thing is , that when you attack something that's in hiding , it lashes out, and it lashed out hard.

If it hadn't taken place on the Shi'ar home world , Scott had no doubt that North America and maybe even South America would have been ash. Because of Shi'ar arrogance their world was in ruins and their bodies littered their streets. Alongside them were Pietro, Lance, Todd, Fred of the Brotherhood, John, Remy, and Mastermind of the Acolytes, Jamie, Amara, Tabitha and Rogue of the X-Men.

As she lay dying her only request was that Scott be by her side. He listened to her confession of her undying love, how she loved him from the moment she say him and fell more and more in love with him each and every day she saw what kind of man he was. She told him that she had loved the real Scott, not Cyclops, not the front he put up as leader or as the perfect boyfriend, just Scott. She had absorbed his memories and knew the fears and the hopes and the dreams and she loved them all. Her dying breath was spent on making him promise he would live his life and try to be happy. She loved him more than herself , even in death and at that moment , he realized he loved her too.

The world was burning down around them all and hope seemed like a distant memory. It was the sight of a screaming, weeping Scott holding a lifeless Rogue that brought Jean back for an instant. The burning beast was silenced for a second and Jean looked on with horror at the walking death she had become. She saw a smoking , badly burned Logan at her feet and cupped his cheek. He realized that she was Jean again when he looked into her eyes. She weapt as the words only he could hear passed her lips " Kill me Logan, Please kill me . Before it comes back and before I kill you all, just kill me". In that split second , Logan tried to think of any other way , he tried to think of a way he could save her AND them but as he looked into her said sad eyes he knew that was not an option. As his claws cracked their way through her rib cage and out her back his anguish scream brought everything else to a standstill. Jean was losing her life and Logan was loosing a soul and a whole world took a moment of silence. She smiled as if a weight had been lifted off her and she kissed him with her last breath in recognition of his sacrifice.

Logan broke Xavier's nose as soon as they touched back down on earth. Hit him so hard it looked like his face had exploded. No one made a move save Erik , they knew he had alerted the Shi'ar and like Logan blamed him . Logan walked into the wilderness, never to come back. The rest of the mutants walked away from a weeping Xavier as Erik squeezed his shoulder. The next day , Charles was gone and Erik was left in charge. It would take another year before Scott could even think about Xavier, his father , without his stomach churning in disgust.

Four years ago Scott got his teaching credentials and took his official place on Erik's staff. He would learn from the mistakes of his father and aid the next generation with a firm hand and a truthful tongue.

Erik made Scott form a main team for the first time since the incident. Scott fought him at first but realized with time it was the only way for any of them to heal . He chose Kitty, Kurt, Hank and Ororo from the original team, added Laura and Bobby because they were really coming into their own , and Piotr because that man always had your back and was pure tank.

Erik had insisted on Wanda and, after a heated discussion, Scott was inclined to agree.

But Scott didn't have to like it. She was undisciplined and a loose cannon. Scott didn't have to like it one bit.


	2. Three - Part One

Three years ago, she came back. It seemed that the being they had fought was just the Phoenix taking Jean's form, he wondered if it even knew it was a copy. It seems that Jean was kept in a stasis from right after the Apocalypse fight until now deep underwater to be found by the Avengers.

Everyone thought that Scott would be overjoyed and run to her with open arms.

Everyone was surprised a few days later when she left alone to search for Logan and Charles.

It was a good thing that the world wasn't in danger for the next little while. Scott taught his every class and attended every X-team meeting and training session but when he wasn't required Scott was a ghost. Everyone else seemed to be wrapped up in their own thing or thought it best to just leave him alone, soon it would pass, they thought.

Wanda saw the pain in his face and knew exactly what it was. Scott Summers was coming apart at the seams and was doing nothing to stop himself from being torn apart . Scott was angry at the world but even angrier at himself. That look was the reason Wanda found herself in some seedy dive bar at ten pm on a Wednesday night. She asked the bartender the man in the corner's poison, bought an entire bottle , and the strolled over, sitting down without him even acknowledging her . They sat in silence , both glancing off lost in thought, until three quarters of the bottle was gone.

" I still hate them, you know," her words broke through the silence and even though he did not look towards her , his clenched jaw seemed to ease up. " My father and brother, I mean. They stuffed me in a cell when I was a child because they couldn't handle me and then wiped my memory when they thought I couldn't handle that. They thought they were helping me but really they didn't stop to think what I really needed was them." He quickly glanced her for a split second as her throat tightened with her words, she fought the urge to run away. "It's a hell of a thing … loving someone so much but not liking them one bit"

With that , her eyes started nervously wandering again and she slipped back into the silence that existed in the booth.

"Love makes fools of us all" he said. It came out rough and uneven, his vocal cords strained from emotion and liquor. "It wasn't that long ago that I thought I had the perfect life. I thought everything was in place and was as it should be."

He swallowed the remnants or his glass and gave a sickened chuckle.

"That was the problem wasn't it . I thought I had every piece of the puzzle but now I see it wasn't my puzzle in the end . It was what was expected. Then it all came crashing down around me. I lost the girl I love, a girl that loved me , and the man who was the only family I knew for the longest time and I was lost... Even though I still had me I was lost without them because it WAS them. My entire sense of self was based on perception and not me. And I didn't even understand it until a month ago."

He poured himself another glass and greedily sucked it back.

" Do you know how it is to get something back only to realize you never really had it in the first place. To realize that you were never really in love, but in love with the idea of it? In love with the idea of being the best you can be , being the golden couple , being in love with an ideal ? To tell another that you love her as she dies in your arms ? And to loose a father because he damned them both? To loose your entire sense of self and then realizing your sense of self was nothing but what you thought was expected ?"

His voice had been steadily raising and her heart was racing with it and almost stopped as his grip exploded the glass in his hand. His hand bled and as it dripped on the table his voice returned to that rough whisper.

"To wake up one morning and realize that all you are is a husk of routine?"

She quickly poured some on the bottle on his wound and stole a bar rag to cover it. She knew what he needed.

"Get your head out of your ass, Summers!" his eye shot up to hers for the first time and his face flashed a little anger. " Seriously, if I had known the leader of the team that beat mine so soundly was deep down an emo kid, I would have offed myself a long time ago"

She grabbed him by the chin and looked him square in the eye, " You are best damn leader of the best damn team in the world, You are a powerful mutant and one smart guy . But most importantly, you are Scott Mother-Effin Summers" She grinned and smacked him in the cheek lightly " And if you don't know who he is then your gonna crawl out of this bottle and damn well find his ass ! "


	3. Three - Part Two

Scott Summers is pissed off. All he wanted to do was go get drunk and wallow in his sadness. All he wanted to do was escape Cyclops, escape the X-Men, escape his entire life in a haze of alcohol and the world wouldn't even give him that. Here's Wanda, WANDA of all people, telling him to get his head out of his ass? His words are littered with venom as he lashes out at her, "Like I'm gonna let some little psycho, tell me how to improve my life!" He growls, "No wonder your own family can't even stand you!" . She looks like a punch in the gut would have hurt her less as he grabs his jacket and keys and makes his way back out to the jeep.

"Whoa there, Chuckles. There is no way in hell that I'm letting you drive two sheets to the wind !" She blocks him as he tries to leave and he can hear the pain in her voice and see it in her eyes and even in his haze there is a bolt of regret that shoots through his gut .He slams his shoulder into her , spinning her almost completely around as he pushes past her. He hears her audibly sigh with annoyance as he goes to step on the jeep's sidebar and somehow misses it. His last thought is 'riggght, Hex Power' as his chin hits what his foot just missed and the rest is blackness.

He awakens in the morning, laying in his own bed . His head feels horrible and his mouth tastes like puke and copper. He looks towards his stand to see it is now 2 in the afternoon and he thanks god it is a Sunday so it's a day off. He eyes shoot beside the clock to see a bottle of Advil, a bottle of water, and a note. He pops the pills in his mouth and sucks back the water like its the last on earth as he reads:

Dear Idiot,

I've laid you on your back so hopefully you don't swallow your tongue. Next time you push me like that I won't let you get off so easily. Despite your best efforts , I got you home in one piece and quietly enough that the rest of the mansion doesn't know what an ass you are. I got the jeep this morning so you owe me cab fare before you even think of getting your keys back. Also , I would suggest you have a shower, you smell and look like s**t. Have A Great Day !

Wanda

He then remembered the actions of last night and ran towards the bathroom . His hangover wasn't that bad , he knew he was just so disgusted with himself that it turned his stomach . She had reached out to him , bared her soul to him and he had spit in her face . He had mocked her pain and that made him feel worse than the pounding in his head. He dragged his sorry ass into the shower and leaned against the wall as the steaming water poured over his aching body.

What would he say to her? How could he even make up for what he had said? He knew he would have to apologize, even if she did never forgive him.

He quickly dressed and searched the grounds for her. She was by herself in one of the training rooms and she was most definitely taking out her frustrations on the punching bag. He approached her, and when she gave no sign of acknowledgment he coughed and his hand rubbed the back of his neck furiously. Her "yeah?" sounded annoyed and off-putting to Scott and she punched the bag a little harder but still did not look at him. Scott was determined and pushed on.

" Look Wanda, I was a world-class jerk last night and I wanted to say how sorry I was . You were just trying to help and I was just a... a.. " He nervously spouted.

"jackass" Wanda replied as she hammered her left foot into the side of the bag.

"a thoughtless pig" another hard right with her fist

"just..." crack "plain ..." slam "MEAN..." her eyes crackled fifty different shades of crimson as the bag exploded with her last punch.

" All of it and much much more, Wanda. You cared enough to share your feelings with me and I pretty much treated you like garbage. I am an idiot and I hope one day you'll be able to forgive my stupidity" Scott sighed and felt a little bit better.

" I don't know, Summers" She grabbed her towel and water and walked towards the door. Scotts shoulders slumped a little as she made her way out the door. "Come back tomorrow and we'll see how much more you can grovel" She said without looking back.

Luckily Scott didn't have any classes to teach at 3 pm for the rest of the week so from 3-5 pm every day he reserved the room and they would train one on one. Whether it was holding her punching bag, spotting her on the weights or being her sparring partner he swore that he would never ever betray her trust again if she gave him another chance at her friendship

Every day he felt bruised from head to toe.

Every day he felt a little bit better about himself.

Because eventually her scowl became a smile.

Eventually, the dead silence became banter and laughter.

She eventually invited him out on the morning run with Kurt and Kitty. That soon transformed into a morning run with the whole team. The run was eventually proceeded with more conversations at the breakfast table.

Scott learned something new about his team every day. He learned about Ororo's love of birds, about Hank's never-ending almost infuriating quest to finally beat Piotr at a game of chess, Bobby's pranks on Kurt and Kitty.

This went on for months and the team just became closer and closer . Eventually it dawned on Scott that they had become the family he had always thought was missing. They had drifted apart over the years and through all the tragedies that found them and the were finally healing the wounds that none of them realized were there.

Wanda had went from being the person he had hurt the most to his best friend. She waited for him by his class every day and he finally encouraged her and she was assisting him with his worload and he even let her try her hand at teaching. She spoke for hours to her class about poetry with a fire that had them all enraptured , even Scott himself.

He was tired of being a stick in the mud, he decided that he needed to seize more moments in his life. He decided to throw caution to the wind one session with Wanda and just kissed her because he felt like it.

She slapped him and ran from the room in shock.


End file.
